Moving from Minneapolis to San Francisco - Cheap Neighborhoods (Richmond: apartments, rentals)

[greenarmadillo]

Hi, this is my first posting here so bear with me! I don't have too much money and was just wondering what neighborhoods in the city (I wouldn't want to live in the suburbs) would be cheapest to rent a place in but not have really high crime rates (ie. safe enough for a 20 year old female to walk home through at night). I also don't really know how much it would cost to rent a 2 bedroom apartment in San Francisco. It wouldn't have to be nice, just livable. Does anyone have an estimate? If you could help that would be great! Thanks a lot!

[greenarmadillo]

Ps: here in minneapolis i pay $450 a month for a 5 bedroom and i live with 4 other people..i would like to pay around that but i'm guessing that's not really realistic..if someone could just tell me the cheapest neighborhoods in San Francisco that would be awesome!

[clongirl]

Well, if you're alright with sharing an apartment/house with others then you can live just about anywhere in the City- it all depends on how much you want to spend and how many people you are okay with living with! The word "cheap" doesn't really equate with safe or San Francisco in general, however. A two bedroom apartment will run at least 2500$ (and that's a low estimate). Safer areas would be the Richmond district, Sunset, Laurel Heights, Marina, North Beach, Cow Hollow, Noe Valley, Castro. Less desireable areas would be the Tenderloin, parts of the Western Addition, parts of lower Haight and Bayview/Hunter's point. Look on Craigslist (most people use this for finding rentals) for a better guide to housing costs and roomate options.

[worktolive]

The city of SF has rent control, meaning that rent increases are limited to about 1.5%/yr and you can't be evicted. This has led to long-term tenants who've been in their places for years and have great rent (can be as low as $1000-1500 for a two bdrm). If you can find one of these apts. to share, rent can be quite cheap. Otherwise, unfortunately, there aren't any undiscovered neighborhoods where it's both safe and rent is cheap.

[humboldtrat]

It's expensive to live in San Francisco and there are no cheap places that are safe, unless you want to share with a couple of roomates. You won't find Minneapolis rents in SF.

[gellio_sf]

Originally Posted by greenarmadillo

Hi, this is my first posting here so bear with me! I don't have too much money and was just wondering what neighborhoods in the city (I wouldn't want to live in the suburbs) would be cheapest to rent a place in but not have really high crime rates (ie. safe enough for a 20 year old female to walk home through at night). I also don't really know how much it would cost to rent a 2 bedroom apartment in San Francisco. It wouldn't have to be nice, just livable. Does anyone have an estimate? If you could help that would be great! Thanks a lot!

I think $450 is unrealistic here. However, I have a friend who shares a three-bedroom apt with 2 other gals and they each pay $675. It's in Mission Dolores which is between the Castro and Mission. I live next door - great area (best for public transportation - BART & MUNI Metro). One of the gals has been there 8 years, so the rents barely gone up. So, deals like that are out. Check out craigslist.org - it'll give you an idea of what's out there.

I used to live in Minneapolis too. You'll love it here in the winter months

What will you be doing for work? Keep in mind that EVERYTHING is more expensive here than in Minne (rent, utilities - except heat, clothes, movies, dining out, drinks, etc..). It's doable though.

[NorthernCalifornia]

You can pay very little rent if you're willing to make really huge sacrifices. Sharing studios, etc. It really depends on if where you live is more important than how you live. Truthfully $550 is a pretty good deal for any decent room in the city and $700 is more realistically the cheaper-part of the market, meaning you can find a room for $700 almost anywhere in the city. A 2br apartment runs at lowest $1700 and more typically in the $2200 range. Defining "2br" can be tricky, often a cheaper 2br is an enormous 1br with a dining room. Some people turn this into a 3br and skip the living room.

Most of the city isn't dangerous but if you're 20 y/o and from mnpls i would recommend finding somewhere quieter at first. SF can be dodgy and if you're not used to being in the city you might have a harder time being close to crime, crazies, druggies and the rest. That said a sensible person can expect to roam freely within reasonable hours in most of the city. Random violent crime, for example, is not that common in SF at all.

If you want to be in SF, move to SF. The suburbs are not the same thing. You may need to start a bit further out or in a less exciting part of town at first, that's what most people end up doing. It provides a great opportunity to get to know the city which should be your priority upon moving here. Once you learn your way around and the character of the neighborhoods, etc, you'll have a much better idea of where and how you want to live in this city.

It's an easy trap to keep paying a little more rent as your funds increase but it's really not necessary unless you are trying to live the rural/suburban life in a dense/crowded city.

[NorthernCalifornia]

A general tip, if you've never heard of the area of town it's probably cheaper than places everyone has heard of like Haight/Ashbury, Russian Hill, North Beach. Also places in between neighborhoods that are hard to define are cheaper. This is a basic result of a bunch of people being desperate to live somewhere they think is cool that they can brag to their friends about. It also makes those same neighborhoods less interesting than you would imagine.

Here's a decent map to get you started: http://z.about.com/d/sanfrancisco/1/...hborhoods2.jpg

one thing to keep in mind is that realtors in particular love to lie about the location of places. if anyone tries to say a place is in a neighborhood that you find out it really isn't don't trust them at all.

i suspect the inner richmond and areas in the immediate vicinity is a good place to start. North of Panhandle and USF areas are also reasonably priced. You'll want to avoid the southeast corner of the city, bayview/visitacion valley/excelsior/ingleside in terms of living until you know your way around SF. I also highly recommend avoiding the Marina as a general guideline.

Other cheaper/less glamorous parts of town worth looking at are the Sunset (all of it), along the "N" is better than along the "L" and west portal, etc. Google for a MUNI map that shows subways/lightrail and bus lines. If it looks really easy and quick to get downtown, it's probably more expensive!

[twins4lynn]

Originally Posted by worktolive

The city of SF has rent control, meaning that rent increases are limited to about 1.5%/yr and you can't be evicted. This has led to long-term tenants who've been in their places for years and have great rent (can be as low as $1000-1500 for a two bdrm).

Apartments covered by rent control can be even less than that! I own a 6 unit rent controlled building in SF near Dolores Park. My tenants have been there way over 15 years and my one vacancy occurred two years ago when someone died. These people aren't going anywhere!! Rents (for the 4-room apartments) range from $743 to $930 for five of the units. The unit that was previously occupied by the deceased fellow has been rented for $1812 (and now the new tenant is covered by rent control at that rate).

And you can be evicted, but it's a difficult process (rent control or not).

[greenarmadillo]

thanks for all the help guys!